Direct Mail supports two billing methods: prepaid resource plans and pay-as-you-go. Each Alibaba Cloud account also receives a free quota of 2,000 emails.
Direct Mail is billed based on the number of emails sent. Two billing methods are available: resource plans and pay-as-you-go.
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Email volume: The total number of emails sent by Direct Mail.
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One email equals one message sent to one address. A message sent to multiple recipients counts as one email per recipient.
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Billing scope: All emails accepted by the Direct Mail system are billed, regardless of final delivery status. Failures caused by Direct Mail system errors are not billed.
Billing for emails sent to invalid addresses is covered in Invalid address documentation.
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If your account has an overdue payment, all email sending is suspended and resource plans cannot be used. After the account is recovered, email usage from the overdue period is deducted from the active resource plan.
Resource plans
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Resource plans are prepaid and take effect immediately after purchase.
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Validity period: 6 months per plan. Multiple plans have independent validity periods that do not accumulate.
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Deduction order: Emails are deducted from the resource plan that expires first. After all plans are depleted, billing switches to pay-as-you-go automatically.
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Once a resource plan has been used or has expired, any unused traffic is not eligible for cancellation or a refund.
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Purchase a new resource plan or deplete an expiring one at least one hour before it expires to ensure correct deduction.
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Billing is processed hourly. The exact billing time within each hour may vary.
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Email volume calculations do not lock the sending process. Emails sent near the end of an hour may be billed in the next hour, which can cause minor discrepancies between console usage and your bill. The total billed amount is accurate after sending completes.
Resource plan specifications
|
Resource plan size (emails) |
Resource plan price |
Subscription duration |
Savings compared to pay-as-you-go |
|
50,000 |
$13.05 |
6 months |
From $1.45 |
|
500,000 |
$121.80 |
6 months |
Save at least $23.20 |
|
1,000,000 |
$230.55 |
6 months |
From $59.45 |
|
5,000,000 |
$1,123.75 |
6 months |
From $326.25 |
Pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go bills at USD 0.29 per 1,000 emails. This postpaid method is enabled by default and takes over automatically after a resource plan is depleted.
Formula: Pay-as-you-go fee = (Number of emails sent / 1,000) × USD 0.29
Fees are rounded to two decimal places. The minimum billable amount is USD 0.01.Free quota
Each Alibaba Cloud account receives a free quota of 2,000 emails total, with a daily limit of 200.
The free quota is independent of resource plans and pay-as-you-go. Emails exceeding the free quota are charged.